Saturday, July 28, 2012

Blue Angels

After we left D.C. we headed up to Baltimore for their celebration of the bicentennial of the the start of the War of 1812. This is a big deal for Baltimore because it's the war when the Star-Spangled Banner was written in Baltimore Harbor during the siege on Fort McHenry. As part of the bicentennial celebration Baltimore had a free airshow over the river in front of Ft. McHenry. You could go to the fort to see it, but there were also other spots along the river that they advertised as being good alternative spots to view the air show that would be less crowded. We went to a hospital parking lot that was directly across the river from the fort. We got there early enough to stake out a spot right on the river with a perfect view of the entire show. It was a little uncomfortable because it was all rocks and trash, but we commandeered a log to sit on so it wasn't too bad.

They had some other planes come through before the Blue Angels came out, but it was really the Blue Angels that stole the show. This was the first time either of us had seen (or can remember seeing) the Blue Angels perform, so we were really impressed by all their maneuvers. Julia was excited to see them at first as well, but by the end of the show I think she had gotten used to the planes and was more interested in playing on the rocks by the river.

Just to give you an idea how low they fly, and two of them are flying upside down here!

I like how you can almost see the pilot here.

I screamed every time they did these dives, it just looks so scary!

This is Ft. McHenry with it's giant "Star-Spangled Banner" and crowds of people.